In
mid-1907, Fenton workers were unloading a railway boxcar
filled with straw used in packing glass.

As one worker slowly slid the boxcar's door open,
he found a disreputable-looking man fast asleep on the floor
inside.

With his face covered by a slouch
hat,
the fellow quickly awoke,
scrambled to his feet,
and brushed away the wisps of straw that clung to him. I'm gonna
show ya how to make a new kinda glass.

Glass chemist and manager Jacob
Rosenthalworked closely with the gentleman (we think he was
John
Gordon) to perfect the
spraying of metallic salts on hot glass. This process created
vivid iridescent hues,
much like the look of oil on water.

In late 1907,
Fenton Art Glass went into the marketplace with its new iridescent
ware.
These were highly-patterned pressed glass articles,
and they soon caught the public's fancy. Collectors prize them
today as Carnival
glass,
a phrase born in the 1950s when authors began to write about
the decades of the past.

For more than two decades,
Fenton stationery proudly carried this phrase: Originators
of Iridescent Ware.
And to think it all began with a fellow who looked like a bum
in a boxcar!

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